Army

12 Iconic British Posters From the Second World War

A collection of World War Two British propaganda images have been published online here - http://bit.ly/1qzvQC3. Below are twelve iconic images from the collection.

A poster designed for the Ministry of Health in the latter part of 1940 to reinforce the message that children should be evacuated out of London. The background to the poster shows a blitzed street with the Union Flag flying defiantly from the rubble. The better-known version of this poster showed a member of the auxiliary fire service and a young boy dressed up as a fireman, eager to do his bit for the war effort.

A Ministry of Agriculture food production poster using the slogan 'Dig for Plenty'. Illustrated with a colourful box of winter vegetables, it is aimed at the amateur gardener, rather than industrial agriculturalists. 'Dig for Victory' was a campaign that ran throughout much of the war. The famous 'foot on the spade' illustration, visible in the bottom left-hand corner, took on a life of its own early in the war. The benefits of growing one's own food were stressed.

A Forces recruitment poster for the ATS. It illustrates a smiling young woman in ATS uniform. The backdrop is of uniformed soldiers surrounding an anti-aircraft gun. The slogan 'They can't get on without us' demonstrates the purpose of the ATS, which was formed on 9 September 1938 to free as many men as possible for service on the front. The women were simply expected to 'spot' the aircraft, not to fire the guns. But some women did exceed their defined role.

A strongly coloured and graphically designed war effort poster, clearly recognisable as Keely's symbolic shorthand style, with a message intended to be intelligible to everybody. The image consists of a First World War infantryman with the slogan 'We beat 'em before' and a Second World War machine gunner attacking, above the slogan 'We will beat 'em again'. France surrendered to the Nazis in June 1940, and this poster was possibly produced in response, encouraging the population to fight, rather than cave in.

An impressive modernist design by Frank Newbould, with elementary imagery of oversized pliers squeezing and breaking down the Nazi swastika. The poster uses an extract from a BBC radio broadcast given by Churchill on 9 February 1941, aimed at President Roosevelt. The speech implied that the British had already proved that they had the will and courage to conduct war against fascism, and all that was needed was the tools, which Churchill hoped the Americans would supply.

A subtly coloured fuel economy poster issued by the Ministry of Fuel and Power, illustrated with an unattended kettle boiling over a full gas flame. The poster was illustrated in Advertiser's Weekly on 12 October, in an article referring to the new winter economy campaign.

A careless talk poster, illustrated with the figure of a blonde-haired woman reclining, and officers from each branch of the Armed Forces about her, with the slogan 'Keep mum she's not so dumb!' The slogan was an adaptation of the 1940 campaign, 'Be Like Dad, Keep Mum', which had so enraged the Labour MP Dr Edith Summerskill.

A Careless talk poster, illustrated with civilian and armed forces headgear, with the slogan 'The more information you keep under your hat' (trilby hat) and the caption 'the safer he'll be under his' (steel helmet). This slogan is less succinct, although more explicit, than the wide-ranging campaign 'Keep it Under Your Hat' of 1940, of which this poster may have intended to be part.

The image is an 'urgent call for blood', depicting infantry soldiers advancing amongst a cloud of smoke, and graphically pointing to the official Army Blood Transfusion appointment card. Space is provided for over-printing to allow local centres to provide information on location and/or time, alongside the more general slogan 'Give your blood so that he may live!'

A road safety poster in a strong modern graphic style, depicting two shadowy civilian men shining their torch as they cross each other in the road. The slogan is direct and to the point: 'Shine your torch downwards when crossing the road' so as not to blind drivers and other pedestrians in the blacked out streets. The poster was illustrated in Art & Industry in July 1943, as an example of posters that had been displayed in a recent poster exhibition.

A recruitment poster, using the strong graphic colours and modern geometric style that make it instantly recognisable as Games's work. The image depicts a Medical Service soldier attached to the Commandos scaling a cliff.

An inter-Allied unity of strength poster, depicting British and American sailors raising their pints together in a pub, whilst Hitler and Goebbels lurk despairingly in the background as they say: 'Unless we can divide these two fellows we're sunk!' The play on words is clever, with the idea that German shipping (U-boats in the main) would be sunk by the British and American navies.